every friendship needs a story. and a steamboat. and a matcha sponge cake with white chocolate & almond cream.

Every friendship has a story. Where you met, how you met, why you “gel” and why, after all these years, this person is still particularly special in this minuscule fleck of existence that you call your life. I have a few such people in my little life, one of them is Loreen.

Hi, this is Loreen (with a big bottle of whiskey):

Loreen and I met at uni in 1998. We were enrolled in the same course and ran into each other every now and then, wearing exactly the same clothes on more than one occasion. I know, right? TEENAGE DEATH BY DUPLICATE FASHION. But instead of becoming narky about it, we bonded over our shared fashion sense and became good friends.

Over the course of the years, Loreen and I shared a number of inimitable experiences, from witnessing my little dog rape her little dog to surviving the rather gory death of a gold fish to partying and falling down many a stairs (just to name a few) and when we graduated and started making some mulah, we decided to be flatmates!

My friendship with Loreen has shaped my life more than any other, I think. She was the one who got me through that heartbreak. I mean, it may not sound like a lot to you guys, but Loreen was the one who made sure I would get up every day and shower and brush my teeth and eat a quarter of a slice of toast. She burnt me lavender oil to help me sleep and she made me leave the house, even though all I would do is cry and cry and cry in the car/restaurant/supermarket. I can’t express in words how much energy she invested in me, and I can barely begin to articulate how much I thank her for it.

With all her caring, I eventually became a whole person again.

I left Loreen in 2003 to move to Sydney, and I’m sure in utter spite for what I did, in 2004 she moved all the way to London. We kept in touch sporadically because she’s not an emailer, but you know, she was always up to speed with the loves and lusts of my life, because that’s the most important news to debrief, no?

In 2007, Panu told me he wanted to move to London. I said I’d think about it, but I didn’t really want to leave Sydney and inside I was in agony, wondering how I was going to leave this perfect guy I’d just met. But alas, I didn’t have to. Loreen and Felix —

— Hi, this is Felix, he air guitars:

Loreen and Felix got engaged and decided to get married in France, their most favourite country. If there’s one wedding I would cross the world for, you bet it’s Loreen’s. And since I was going all the way to France for her, I figured I’d get a visa and stay a while and… I’m still with Panu today.

You see how she’s shaped my life? YOU SEE? It’s crazy.

Anyway, Loreen’s done a bunch of fabulous things in her life, but I have to say that the best was to marry Felix. Loreen doesn’t cook. Felix does. And he’s awesome. Last weekend they invited us all over to their place for a steamboat. Felix had prepared two pots of stock – one chicken and one tom yum, and all the usual goodies (fish balls, fish cakes, chicken, beef, eggs, fish, noodles, tofu, cabbage, mushrooms, SO MUCH AWESOME STUFF!)

We ate like kings.

I made a matcha sponge cake. With white chocolate and almond cream, naturally.

This recipe is adapted from Scandi Foodie – her recipe creates a chiffon cake. I found mine wasn’t as fluffy as a chiffon cake and came out more like a sponge cake. So imma call it that.

You need to make the white chocolate cream a day in advance (or at least a few hours) – boil the cream over a saucepan and pour it over the chopped chocolate.

Let it sit for a few minutes for the chocolate to melt, before stirring to make sure the chocolate melts completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 3 hours.

To make the cake, pre-heat oven to 180°C/356°F.

In one bowl, whisk the egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar to make a smooth cream. Gradually whisk in the oil and water. Add the flour and matcha and mix well.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the remaining sugar in 2 batches and keep beating until the mixture is thick and glossy.

Carefully fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches.

Pour the mixture into a greased 8″ spring form cake tin and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 180°C/320°F and bake for another 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool.

If making two laters, repeat steps 3-8.

Once both sides are cool, whip the white chocolate cream until thick and does not drip. Using a rubber spatula, apply cream to both “inside” faces of the cake, sprinkle a layer of almond flakes and match the two sides together.

Apply cream around the whole outer ring of the cake and holding the cake on a slight angle, drop almond flakes along the side, making sure they stick. If you have enough cream (I didn’t – so make more if you want to do this), add cream across the entire top of the cake and sprinkle with almond flakes.

That thing about close friends? You are so right. I’m just lucky that mine live in London. If they didn’t, well that would make life hard. They’re the people you can always fall back on no matter what the issue, the people who really know you best. And if you can do it all over food, even better!

I am mildly (ok ok, majorly) in awe of that steamboat. I’ve eaten the odd one in a restaurant, but to do all that at home. And make cake. Wow. Impressive.

Wow, what a friendship! I’m so happy that you still see each other, and things have worked out in everyone’s best interests! It’s so wonderful to be with friends and share great food, and am glad that you got to share your matcha goodness! Interestingly enough I just made almond milk today, and have some almond pulp from it which can be made into almond powder. I wonder whether it’ll be good for making this?
Much love and nice to know your well! x